IMF Board of Directors to Meet Friday to Discuss Argentina's Debt Agreement

The board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will meet next Friday to discuss Argentina's request for a debt settlement, the institution's spokesman announced Saturday.

On Thursday, the Argentine Senate definitively approved the agreement between Buenos Aires and the IMF on the refinancing of the $45 billion debt with the Fund. The agreement has yet to be signed by the IMF board of directors.

“Legislative approval is an important sign that Argentina is committed to policies that will foster more sustainable and inclusive growth,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement.

But he also emphasized that it is necessary to “take into account the rapidly changing global environment, including the war in Ukraine.”

Therefore, the IMF Executive Board will meet “to discuss Argentina's request for an IMF-supported program on Friday, March 25,” he added.

He further indicated that the Argentine authorities had “informed the IMF that they will combine repayment obligations due on March 21 and 22 into a single amortization by March 31, 2022, for a total amount equivalent to about 2,014 million special drawing rights.”

The spokesman stressed that Argentina will remain this way “up to date with its payments to the IMF and, therefore, will not be in arrears.”

Argentina and the IMF reached an agreement on March 3 on a debt refinancing program of almost $45 billion, inheritance of a record loan taken in 2018 by the previous government of liberal Mauricio Macri.

This is the 13th agreement between the Fund and Argentina since the country's return to democracy in 1983. Before this last pact, Argentina was at risk of non-compliance.

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